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The Mars Homestead Project of the Mars Foundation created a design for the first mostly self-sufficient settlement on Mars. In looking at the problem of the role of life support systems in such a settlement we consulted Maslow's hierarchy of needs in order to prioritize the systems needed to arrive, survive and thrive on Mars. This talk relates how Maslow's hierarchy informed the design process of the settlement.

Life support addresses the two lowest levels of the hierarchy: physiological and safety.

Without these people will not act civilly.

For a settlement to grow people should not have to think about the first two levels. They will be drawn to the settlement if they feel that it will satisfy one of the higher needs.

Our Martian homestead may succeed perfectly at the first two levels, but unless it satisfies needs at the higher levels it would still fail. There are many places in the world today where the first two levels are not being satisfied. These are all places people would leave.

Physiological needs are the very basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things.

Love and belongingness are next on the ladder. Humans have a desire to belong to groups: clubs, work groups, religious groups, family, gangs, etc. We need to feel loved by others, to be accepted by others. Performers appreciate applause. We need to be needed.

Settlement design does not need to specifically address this or the higher levels. The initial settlers will certainly feel a sense of “we are all in this together.” Beyond that, people are very creative at creating trade organizations, fraternities, social clubs, etc. It might not be a bad idea to get this started through by planting the seed for some of these, e.g., The Hydroponics Guild.

There are two types of esteem needs. First is self-esteem which results from competence or mastery of a task. Second, there's the attention and recognition that comes from others. This is similar to the belongingness level, however, wanting admiration has to do with the need for power. People who have all of their lower needs satisfied, often acquire “status symbols” because doing so raises their level of esteem.

I do not think we will need to be concerned about this. People are very creative at creating honor societies, awards, etc. It might not be a bad idea to get this started by planting the seed for some of these, e.g., Certified Air Recycling Engineer.

The need for self-actualization is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." People who have everything can maximize their potential. They can seek knowledge, peace, esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, oneness with God, etc.

At some point the Martians, assuming they need or desire immigrants, will need to publish and publicize first person accounts of how Mars helped a them achieve this. The possibility of this is what will keep Martians on Mars and Earth folks coming.

An assumption was made that an energy source large enough to meet the needs of the initial compliment of people will be imported from Earth and ready when they arrive. A fuel production system will also have been put in place and already made a supply of fuel.

A further assumption was made that the initial complement arrives with adequate, if temporary, shelter and sufficient stores to get them through the boot strapping stage along with some communication, transport, and navigation systems to last until replacements can be made.

Nothing can be recycled from these systems until native replacements have been made or replacements imported.

Therefore, the systems, tools, and raw materials to bootstrap are a separate imported group of things.

The initial task of the bootstrap systems is to produce their own replacements. Again, we can assume that our initial power source will function as is for an extended period. And triple redundancy of this system is provided from Earth. The priority would then be items 2 thru 11 of the life support hierarchy in so far as it is part of the effort to create a backup bootstrap system.

The next task of the bootstrap systems is to produce additional replacements for themselves to support later waves of settlers.

The additional systems then can be used to produce additional materials to be used to enhance the quality of life of the settlers and build redundancy into the basic systems (including energy). It is at this point that safety needs are met and population increase can be supported and that entrepreneurial activity can really begin. It is also at this point that we move beyond the physiological and safety levels of Maslow’s hierarchy.

There is another basic need that spans items 1 thru 8 above. This is waste processing. It need not be waste recycling, but at a minimum, waste must be processed so that it does not foul the shelter or disrupt the systems addressing the other basic needs.

Most of the issues before us have been well researched and in many cases prototypes have been built and tested. Our main task is to weed through the existing information and separate the wheat from the chaff. THIS IS FALSE!

We decided we should avoid “futures” and speculating upon the technologies available in the future and only use existing technology. Trusting your life to new technologies is for explorers; settlers use “tried and true.” Our own credibility is also at stake.

For 40 years the artificial intelligence that designs the fusion reactor has been just 10 years away.

The primary focus of past and current research in Closed Environmental Life Support has assumed zero gravity, under orbital conditions, and assume smaller populations than we are considering. While not entirely irrelevant, I suspect that in most cases the appropriate Martian solution is one based upon a modification of an Earth (gravity field) system.

Environmental Closure is less important on Mars than in space and the tradeoff is one of more energy use (to extract required materials from the resources at hand or maintain environmental conditions within tolerance) in exchange for less closure. This may be the more cost effective route.

Current system metrics: Equivalent Mass (EM), Equivalent System Mass (ESM), etc. were formulated for orbital and interplanetary mission designs, not for settlement. We may need to define a more appropriate metric.

The last two points combine to point us towards a metric of ESE (equivalent system energy) since on Mars the limiting factor is not the launch capacity available to put mass into space, but the energy available to manipulate the mass at hand. I suspect we also want to weight the metric by the type of energy used – electricity vs high grade heat vs low grade heat, etc. This would give a preference to systems that use low grade heat (probably the waste component of some other system) over one that requires high grade heat or electricity to achieve the same result.

For settlers life support systems will be a business and an occupation, not a social program or public utility or something provided by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

We want to create an environment that generates competing private suppliers of habitable space, air, water, food, and energy – and everything else for that matter. We are starting a settlement – a town on the Martian frontier - not a commune or government run lab. This is not a kibbutz and it is not Antarctica!

Let’s not forget services: banking, insurance, entertainment, communications, transport, education, child care, legal, security, hotel, funeral, restaurant, etc. People could be imported from Earth to provide these services, but it makes more sense for these to be secondary and tertiary occupations of the initial settlers. In every Western movie what were the major components of a frontier town? – general store, Hotel/saloon/restaurant/brothel, jail/sheriff’s office, barber shop, livery stable/black smiths, train station/telegraph office, undertaker, church, and a bank (to be robbed).

Historically the town portion of a settlement is dependent upon a major nearby economic activity: port, tourism, ranching, farming, mining, manufacturing, government, gambling, etc. What is the main economic support for a Martian settlement? We cannot just focus on what makes it possible, we need to focus on what will make it viable.